


a little tomorrow

by punk_rock_yuppie



Series: two men and a mothbaby [3]
Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series)
Genre: Cuddling, Domesticity, Established Relationship, Fluff, Future Fic, Gen, Kidfic, M/M, Original Child Characters, Original Cryptid Characters, Parenthood, cuteness, family fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-08
Updated: 2019-12-08
Packaged: 2021-02-25 23:28:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,945
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21723262
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/punk_rock_yuppie/pseuds/punk_rock_yuppie
Summary: Ryan and Shane get a visit from Indy and Littlefoot.
Relationships: Ryan Bergara/Shane Madej
Series: two men and a mothbaby [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1554988
Comments: 18
Kudos: 121





	a little tomorrow

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally the epilogue to Indy's Day Out, but the more I wrote it, the more I felt like it worked well on its own! 
> 
> I know next to nothing about human children, so I did my best with consulting my one friend with kids and then also Google. My knowledge of kids and the adoption process is, like most of my research, dubious at best. I don't touch on it much here (but I might in another fic, later on), but Ryan and Shane got Stephanie when she was 2, and got Alexander when he was born. 
> 
> Big thanks to Bess and Hannah for beta'ing!

The baby monitor crackles to life and Ryan rolls over with a groan, slapping a hand against Shane’s chest. 

“Your turn,” he mumbles into the pillow.

Shane grunts in response. “Before eight am, he’s _your_ son.”

“You did _not_ just fucking quote _Lion King _at me. Tell me you didn’t fucking do that,” Ryan says without heat. He raises his head slightly and finds Shane grinning at him, a mess of bedhead and still-shut eyes. 

“I plead the fifth,” Shane says just as their bedroom door creaks open. He turns his head and Ryan sits up to peer over him as their daughter approaches the bed, clad in one of Shane’s old shirts and a pair of fuzzy sleep pants. “Hey, sweetheart what’s up?” 

“Alex is crying,” Stephanie says as she clambers onto the bed. She reaches for Ryan and he pulls her into his lap, resting his head atop her bright auburn shock of curls. 

“Shane was just getting up to take care of that.” Ryan winds his arms around Stephanie’s middle and shoots Shane a grin. “Weren’t you, papa?” 

Shane throws off the covers with enough force to send the blanket over Ryan and Stephanie’s heads. “Of course,” he says as Stephanie lets out a peal of laughter. She fights to tug the blanket off and giggles again as Shane winks at her from the door. 

Over the baby monitor, Ryan listens as the nursery door opens, squeaking slightly, and as Shane starts to coo at their son. He’s a year old with a head of wispy dark hair and big brown eyes; the crying stops as Shane presumably scoops him out of the crib. Ryan can’t see it, of course, but he can picture it. He’s seen Shane do it enough times that it’s burned into his memory, accompanied by a rush of fond warmth. 

Stephanie bumps against his chin and Ryan realizes he’s been daydreaming. “Breafkast?” She asks, word slightly mixed up in her mouth.

“Yeah, baby, breakfast, let’s brush our teeth first, though.” Ryan lifts her slightly and holds her on his hip as he slips out of bed. It’s a move that’s taken a while to perfect, but he now manages with relative ease. Stephanie throws one chubby arm over his neck and mouths at her knuckles on the other hand. 

They pass one of Obi’s several beds in the hallway, and he raises a head fringed in graying fur to watch them pass. “Sorry,” Ryan murmurs, and Obi chirps in response before settling back down. “Shane,” he says as they stop by the doorway to the nursery, “You want breakfast?” 

“Heck yeah,” Shane says jovially. “Mind if I wash him up while you cook?” 

“Sure, we’re gonna brush first.” Ryan detours to the guest bathroom where his and Shane’s toothbrushes sit alongside Stephanie’s. He sets her on the counter and she opens her mouth, full of tiny baby teeth with plenty of gaps, dutifully. “Thanks, munchkin,” he tells her as he brings the toothbrush to her mouth. With his free hand, he flips the little plastic hourglass timer on the counter and keeps an eye on it as he diligently and delicately brushes his daughter’s teeth. When the sand finally runs out, he rinses her brush and puts it back and helps her spit and rinse. 

“Floss,” she says, and he nods. She licks her lips once he’s finished and watches him with rapt blue eyes as he brushes his own teeth, rinses, flosses. Then he scoops her up again and she laughs against his cheek.

“Ready for family time in the kitchen?” Ryan asks. Stephanie nods eagerly. 

It’s not the first time it’s happened—one of them bathing Alex in the sink, Stephanie happy in her booster seat, and whoever’s not doing the bathing is doing the cooking. Unless they both end up doing the bathing, which happens sometimes when Alex is particularly restless. 

Ryan gets into the kitchen first and helps Stephanie into her booster seat before grabbing eggs and bacon out of the fridge, pausing to get the water running warm in the sink. Shane comes in a few moments later with a bare-butt Alex in his arms, gurgling and squirming happily. Shane stops long enough for Ryan to press a kiss to their son’s head before carrying on. 

Ryan’s got eggs cracked in a bowl and scrambled and bacon frying in a pan when his phone chimes from the bedroom. He looks at Shane, whose shirt is soaked, with suds somehow in his hair, and asks, “You good while I run and grab that?”

“I’ll holler,” Shane replies without looking at him. “Alexander, no, please don’t eat the soap.”

Ryan snorts to himself as he slips from the kitchen, wiping his hands on his pants as he goes. He stretches across the bed to his nightstand and snatches his phone along with his glasses. He grabs Shane’s, too, and hooks them on the collar of his shirt as he walks. The screen of his phone reads _one new message_, and he slides to open it. 

** from [indy]  
** _Is it okay if we stop by today? for the weekend? _

Ryan smiles to himself and fires off an affirmative before pocketing his phone. “Here, papa, you forgot your glasses.”

“Ah, one more thing to get splashed on.” Shane tilts his head and allows Ryan to slide them on. “Your bacon may be burning.”

“Shut up, Shane,” Ryan says fondly, though he does hurry back to the stove to prod at the bacon in the pan. He flips it, wincing slightly at the slightly overdone crisp to one side. “Those are your slices.”

“You know the exact way to my heart,” Shane sing-songs back at him. 

Ryan rolls his eyes. “Indy and Littlefoot are gonna come by for the weekend, by the way.”

Shane takes a moment to respond, understandably distracted by rinsing Alex clean before blowing raspberries on his damp stomach. “Oh yeah? Awesome! It’s been a while.” Ryan watches from the corner of his eye as Shane swaddles Alex in a towel. “That’s exciting, isn’t it?” he coos at their son. “Your favorite cousins-slash-kinda-sorta-siblings!” 

Shane drops a kiss to Ryan’s shoulder. “Be right back.” 

Ryan dishes up three plates: one with just scrambled eggs and some ketchup on the side, and two with hefty portions of both eggs and bacon. He places Stephanie’s plate in front of her and asks, “Want some toast, too?”

She hums around a bite of eggs that’s already smeared across one cheek. “Please,” she says with a nod.

Ryan busies himself with buttering the toast and listens to the sounds of Stephanie chewing her eggs, a wet and smacking sound that used to kind of unsettle him but he’s come to appreciate. 

“Who’s Indy n’Lil’foot?” she asks just as the toast pops up. 

“They’re your...cousins, sort of. You met them once.” He cuts the toast into smaller bite-sized pieces and licks the melted butter off his fingers. “Here you go, kiddo,” he says as he sets the plate beside her first one. 

“I did?” she asks. Her little plastic fork has been abandoned. 

“Mhm,” Ryan says. “You were little, like this big.” He holds up a hand with his pointer finger and thumb no more than a quarter’s width apart. 

“Nuh-uh!” she cries.

“Yeah huh,” Shane says as he sweeps back into the room. He deposits Alex, now dressed in a soft blue onesie, into the high chair. He stops by the fridge and snags a jar of baby food from the door. “I think you were maybe more like _this_ big.” He mimics Ryan, except his fingers are even closer together. 

“Nuh-uh!” she cries again. 

“Yeah huh,” Shane replies just as quickly. “You were so small,” he drawls. “We probably have pictures, right?”

“No, Shane, why would we _ever_ take pictures of our daughter meeting our first godchild for the first time?” Ryan shakes his head at Stephanie and even though she probably doesn’t really get it, she laughs. “Yes, we have pictures. They’re in the, uh, purple album, I think?”

“Are they nice?” Stephanie asks. As she chews, bits of toast and egg drop down the front of her pajamas. 

“The nicest,” Ryan says. “They’re family.”

“Like Alex,” she says wisely, though she wrinkles her nose at her brother as Shane attempts to spoon feed him some mashed peaches. 

“Like Alex,” Shane says. “Just like that.”

Indy and Littlefoot arrive a few hours later, while Shane and Ryan are on the couch, watching Alex jump in his bouncy chair and Stephanie play with her dolls. Ryan looks at the door first, then after a glance at Shane, he calls out, “Come in!” 

The door swings open, and it would be ominous if it wasn’t followed immediately by Indy’s familiar, pleasant trill, and Littlefoot half-shouting, “Hey!” They come stumbling in and the door falls shut behind them. 

“Hey guys!” Shane smiles at them and Littlefoot—though she’s not really little anymore, standing nearly as tall as Shane—makes a beeline for him first. Indy wanders over to Stephanie first instead, probably because she’s staring up at Indy with her eyes wider than Ryan’s ever seen.

“Steph, this is Indy,” Ryan says. “You guys met when you were really little.”

Indy is now just a little shorter than Ryan, and with a wingspan to match its height. Its arms are no longer tucked against its body and it extends its inky black hands to Stephanie. Stephanie doesn’t recoil. Instead, she passes the doll in her hand to Indy.

“Wanna play?” she asks with a tilt of her head. 

_ Sure _, Indy says inside their heads. If Stephanie finds it weird, she doesn’t let on.

Alex chooses that moment to cry, but before Ryan or Shane can move, Littlefoot is on her feet and moving toward the baby bouncer. “Can I?” she asks in her quiet voice. She sounds a lot like her mom as she’s gotten older, though her hair is a lighter gold from the sun in California and curled at the tips. 

“Go for it,” Ryan says. He leans back against the couch and against Shane and watches as Littlefoot crouches beside Alex.

“Hey, little guy,” she says. She extends one hand first and Alex slowly stops crying, changing to sniffles, then silence. He blinks curiously at her furry hand and when she turns it over, showing him her palm, he lays his own stubby-fingered hand on one finger. “Can I pick you up?”

He blinks at her, mouth open, and she takes that as a yes. Slowly and carefully, she tucks her hands under his armpits and lifts him out of the chair and into her arms. “You must be Alex,” she says with a smile. “It’s nice to meet you.” 

Ryan looks over at Shane, intent on asking if he’s got his phone, but his husband already has his phone out and there’s the telltale sound of pictures being snapped. He looks back to Littlefoot and Alex with a grin. 

“He’s very good,” Littlefoot says. Alex starts to fuss and she carries him over, passing him off to Ryan with an unspoken sort of certainty; the second Alex is in Ryan’s arms, he settles. 

“Thanks, Lil,” Shane says. Littlefoot smiles at him. “You guys just staying for the weekend?”

Littlefoot nods. “We’re heading to Virginia on Monday.” 

“Gonna go see Mothdaddy?” 

Ryan sighs without looking away from Alex’s little face. From the corner of his eye, he watches Littlefoot nod again to Shane. “Your papa is an idiot,” he whispers conspiratorially.

“Your dad _loves_ that papa’s an idiot,” Shane says. Then to Littlefoot, “The guest room is all set up for you guys, and you know where to find extra blankets if you need it.”

_ Thanks _ . Indy finally stands from playing with Stephanie and follows a step behind as Stephanie rushes at the couch and clambers into Shane’s lap. _She’s cute._

“Aw, Indy, are you jealous?”

Indy blinks its big red eyes and looks away. _No._

“You know you’re our kiddo too, c’mere.” Ryan shimmies to the side of the couch to make space between him and Shane. Indy hesitates only a moment before disappearing with a _pop_, even though it’s only a few feet away from the couch. Littlefoot rolls her eyes but joins them on the couch too, on Shane’s other side. Obi comes meandering out from wherever he was hiding, moving slow until he’s close enough to hop onto Shane’s lap, purring softly.

It’s a bit of a tight fit, and Ryan’s fast becoming too warm, but as Indy’s wings spread along the back of the couch and its antennae twitch against Ryan’s face, he wouldn’t change anything for the world. 

“So,” Ryan says as he tucks Stephanie into bed that night. “What do you think of Indy and Lil?” 

Stephanie yawns. “They’re nice. Are they staying?”

“For the weekend.”

“Will they play with me again tomorrow?”

“Definitely,” Ryan says. The bedroom door creaks slightly as Shane enters. “Alex is down?”

“Sleeping like a little baby log, if logs could have babies.”

Stephanie giggles. “Daddy?” 

“Yeah, sweetie?” Ryan’s knees are starting to ache but Stephanie’s face is suddenly serious, her little lips pursed and face scrunched up. 

“Why do Indy and Lil look like that?”

“Like what?” 

Stephanie raises an unimpressed eyebrow at Ryan. “Papa, why do they look like that?” she asks as she looks at Shane instead. 

“Oh my god,” Ryan murmurs and the same time Shane says, “They’re special. Indy is a baby Mothman, and Lil is a baby Bigfoot.”

“What are those?”

Shane comes and sits on the foot of Stephanie’s bed. “They’re creatures, like in your storybooks.”

Stephanie ‘oh’s quietly. “Is it a secret?” 

Ryan looks at Shane and Shane stares back. “Yeah,” Ryan says. “It’s a secret. To protect them.”

Stephanie considers the answer before she nods, curls bouncing. “Okay.” She wriggles deeper under her covers and pulls her blankets up to her chin. “Love you daddy, papa.”

“Love you too, sweetheart.” Ryan finally rises off his knees to kiss Stephanie’s head. Shane takes his turn and ruffles her curls while he’s at it. They leave her bedroom door ajar slightly as they slip into the hall. 

Wordlessly, they detour to the nursery and peak in on Alex again and listen to his small, snuffling noises. Then it’s a stop by the guest room.

Littlefoot is already in bed with a book in her lap, while Indy is flittering about the room, floating a few inches off the ground.

“You guys good?” Shane asks. He’s pressed along Ryan’s back, chin hooked over his shoulder. 

“Yeah,” Littlefoot says at the same time Indy’s voice reverberates in their thoughts with a similar answer. “Can we take the kids to the park tomorrow?”

Ryan shrugs. “Sure, that’d be fun.” 

Littlefoot smiles at him from the bed. “Alright. G’night Ryan, Shane.”

_ Night! _ Indy appears at the door and opens its arms. Ryan laughs and steps into the hug, letting out a soft ‘oof’ when Shane completes the hug sandwich and wraps around him from behind. _Love you guys._

“Love you too,” Ryan and Shane say in unison. “Let us know if you need anything, okay?”

Indy rolls its eyes as it steps back. _Yeah, yeah_.

Ryan and Shane finally make it back to their own bedroom. They go through their usual routine of changing into pajamas and brushing their teeth and elbowing each other as they take turns washing their faces. Eventually, they fall into bed under the covers. Shane leaves his bedside lamp on, because he loves to read before bed, while Ryan opens his phone to scroll mindlessly for a bit. 

“You know what I miss?” Shane says thoughtfully as he turns a page.

“Hm?”

“Raising Indy and not dealing with diapers. Or bath time, for that matter.”

“You love bath time,” Ryan counters.

“Well, yeah. I love everything about our kids. They’re _our_ kids. But man, if I could trade diapers for, y’know, Alex to have the ability to teleport, I’d do it in a heartbeat.”

“Don’t even joke about that.” Ryan sets down his phone. “The last thing we need is our one-year-old son to have the ability to teleport.”

“It’s not like it could happen!”

“There is a teenaged Bigfoot and Mothteenie in our fucking guest room. _Anything_ could happen. Take it back.”

Shane holds up a hand in surrender. “Fine, fine, I do not wish that our son could teleport. What about Steph?”

“Even worse,” Ryan says, but he’s laughing. “No teleporting children anymore, please. I love Indy, but I can’t take the stress.”

“You’re just mad because you suck at hide and seek.” 

“Take it back!” Ryan hisses.

Shane shakes his head. “Nope. It’s just a fact. You’re mad that you suck at hide and seek, and you’re mad that your amazing husband is the hide and seek champion.”

“You’re not a _champion_ just because you found Stephanie when she was hiding under the couch that one time.”

“You were ready to call the police because you thought she went _missing_.”

“She was three!”

Ryan watches as Shane dogears a page in his book and tosses it onto his bedside table. He rolls onto his side and pats at Ryan’s cheek. 

“I love you, and all your ridiculous worries.” Shane kisses Ryan before he can reply, and he effectively steals whatever sort of coherent thoughts Ryan could’ve hoped to form. “I promise not to wish that either of our children have the ability to teleport.” 

“Thank god,” Ryan says quietly. “Now shut up and keep kissing me.”

“Yes sir!” 

Ryan laughs into the kiss.


End file.
